Getting Ready for School

So earlier this week we started Pre-Kindergarten.

Here.

At home.

With me teaching her.

I never thought I’d be doing this.  But then, there were a lot of times that I didn’t know if we’d even have kids. I am so thankful that they are in my life and I am so thankful that I have the ability to do this.

So on to what you’re probably here for: Choosing a curriculum

This has been no small task. We are using Calvert School for our Pre-Kindergarten curriculum.

The biggest issue was how I feel about my own belief system and teaching children about science. It was important that the science curriculum be empirically based and not based on religion. This is not to say that religion isn’t important but I am one of those folks that believes in both creationism and evolution. But that is a topic for another blog post.

I wanted a strong science. Mainly because if my daughter or son decide to be scientists and get accepted at MIT, I don’t want them laughed out of the place on the first day because they think that the fossil record was put in place by the Devil.

I also wanted a complete curriculum. I thought about putting together my own from a little of this and a little of that, but I decided that I wanted something that would be the backbone of the curriculum and then I could supplement as I like.

I also needed something that would fairly inexpensive so that I could see if I liked it without plunking down a grand for pre-K.

In a nutshell, it is a complete package.  Everything comes with it: the books, the art supplies, the drawing paper, even the crayons and modeling clay.

The Lesson Manual is best part of the whole program.  It details EXACTLY what you should do, how you should prepare, what you need for each lesson. There are 160 lessons with review lessons at lesson 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, and 160. 

Now the downside: Numbers aren’t introduced until Lesson 82 and the alphabet isn’t introduced until lesson 137.  My kid already knows the alphabet and can count almost perfectly to 20 (she frequently leaves out 12 for some reason).

The books are boring. Yep, I said it.  There are a few line drawings and the stories aren’t all that exciting either.  I don’t know what I expected.  But we will definitely have to supplement with interesting, colorful reading material.

I will be adding pre-handwriting materials, more interesting reading materials, calendar time, more science, some Bible study, and possibly a bit of French.